The president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, who presented his resignation this Thursday but Congress failed to gather a quorum to vote on the resignation, has announced that he will appear before the Senate to formally exercise his right to defense in the impeachment trial opened against him for the Ueno Bank financial scandal. The first session of the process concluded at the end of Thursday afternoon and the president was summoned to resume the process this Friday morning. Meanwhile, the Executive Spokesperson has denied the information about an alleged flight from the country.
"Given the continuity of the impeachment trial, I will appear and exercise my right to defense. I will do so with arguments and evidence, with respect for the Constitution and the institutions of the Republic," Peña has stated online, ensuring that he will take on the process not out of "personal pride," but out of the responsibility of "being accountable and giving explanations to the Paraguayan people." Likewise, it has guaranteed its full collaboration with Justice to clarify responsibilities in the banking disaster and has stressed that the payment to the affected savers cannot be left in the air.
In parallel, the spokesman for the Presidency, Guillermo Grance, has offered a press conference to deny the rumors of a flight to Argentina after the stalemate of his resignation in Parliament. "The president is in the country, he is in the capital and he is going to fulfill his constitutional duty to defend himself in a timely manner," Grance stated, calling for social calm and guaranteeing that the Executive continues to function normally.
Resignation blocked by Congress
For its part, the trial court of the Senate has concluded the first session of the constitutional trial, activated after the vote on Peña's resignation was blocked in a bicameral session after the deputies of the ruling Colorado Party left the chamber.
After two hours of intense debate, a group of members of Peña's party left the room, thus forcing the president of the Senate, Basilio Núñez, to adjourn the session. All this despite the fact that the ruling party had announced that it would support the president's resignation. In fact, the former president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes, who promoted Peña's electoral career in 2023, had confirmed in a statement that from the Colorado Party "we accompany the impeachment of the president in order to redirect the institutionality of the Republic."
Upon leaving the plenary session, the president of Congress, Basilio Núñez, confirmed to the media the formal opening of the process in compliance with the regulations of the Upper House. "As the bicameral session was left without a quorum, it was appropriate to begin the impeachment trial. The accusing prosecutors have already presented the complaint and now it is being sent to the president to prepare his defense," explained the legislative head, specifying that the appearance may be made in person or through his legal representatives.
Likewise, Núñez has explained that the court has already formally received the accusatory libel from the prosecutors and has defended the need to respect "due process" and the regulatory deadlines - organized in a sequence of five extraordinary sessions - to guarantee the legal neatness of the trial. "We are respecting the times established in the regulations because we already have complaints before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for hasty procedures," said the president of the Senate, adding that, after the presentation of the defense this Friday, the sessions dedicated to the evaluation of evidence, the presentation of allegations and, finally, the roll call vote of the senators will take place.
After the presentation of the defense scheduled for this Friday, the full Senate will continue with the evaluation of evidence and the final arguments before proceeding to the roll-call vote.
If Peña ends up being removed - for which the support of 30 of the 45 senators is required - he would lose his immunity and his status as a senator for life, and the Head of State would immediately fall to the Vice President of the Republic, Pedro Alliana, who would assume office after being sworn in before Parliament in accordance with the constitutional order of priority.
The dismissal is not merely symbolic in nature, far from it: if he is dismissed, he will not be able to access the status of senator for life and will lose the possibility of having the privileges corresponding to that figure. That is, in the event of accusations of possible crimes, the records would be sent directly to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Prosecutor's Office, and he would be deprived of a good part of his immunity.
